Two for the Road
by Younger Dr. Grey
Summary: What if Jo hadn't gone on the road trip? How would the talk in the car be different if it was just Danny and Lacey? Alternate scene for 1x06 - "Three for the Road". Hints of Danny/Lacey and the Lacey-Jo fallout.


Danny starts it. He always does. They haven't been on the road more than thirty minutes when Danny turns down the radio and peers over at Lacey. He watches her, and she does her best not to squirm with how focused his stare is on her face. She moves her fingers some on the steering wheel. She even glances up to check herself in her mirrors. There's nothing on her, so why is he staring? Is this about the kiss? She definitely does not want to go there tonight.

Forcing a little grin onto her face, Lacey breaks the silence. "What?" He tilts his head, silently stalling yet peeking her interest at the same time. "What are you thinking, Danny?"

"What happened with you and Jo?" he asks, and no amount of will power could keep the grin on Lacey's face. She feels herself deflate, hears Jo's voice in the back of her head. ("Why aren't you talking to me? Lacey, come on.") "Why won't you just tell me?"

Because there's nothing more to tell. She told him at their sleepover that middle school was rough, and she did what she had to do. That included ending her friendship with Jo. It shouldn't be a big deal.

"'Cause it's none of your business, Danny." Her voice lowers as she adds, "It stopped being your business when you killed your aunt."

Danny doesn't back away from the challenge. He doesn't show guilt, or regret, or any of those pesky emotions that normal people react with. No, he retorts, "And it started being my business again when I came back."

"No." She doesn't think so.

"No?"

"No. You don't get to make orders here." They aren't kids anymore swapping stories in their hideout. No playing Truth or Truth to get to the bottom of a problem; though, Lacey's not so sure Danny was ever that honest during the game. Or ever.

"You don't get to write me off."

Lacey scoffs. Right, he leaves them and she doesn't have the right to get pissed off about it. She glances over at him and then back to the road. "How selfish can you be, Danny? You left us, and now that you're back you're forcing yourself on us."

He laughs. "You're one to talk about forcing yourself on someone."

Lacey hits the brakes a little too sharply. The car jerks. She glares at him from the sides of her eyes. "Are you serious right now? You kissed me back."

"I followed your lead."

"Bullshit." Another glance at him. He wants truth? "You've wanted to kiss me since you came back."

"Longer." Lacey gets quiet. Danny's voice softens. "I wanted to kiss you before I left too." A bit of a smirk. "You're, uh, better than I expected."

Is that supposed to be a compliment? She doesn't even look at him. Her grip on the wheel tightens as she says, "You can thank Archie for that."

Danny's eyes narrow. "Oh, will do. Want me to do that now?" He reaches for her phone. Lacey shrieks and reaches to take it from him, but he moves his hands to the other side of his body.

She motions for him to hand it over. "Give that back."

"Hands on the wheel." He unlocks her phone. The sound echoes in the quiet car, almost like the grinding of her teeth. She reaches again, and he starts scrolling down. She keeps glancing over, catching him going to her text messages. He's not really gonna text Archie, is he?

"Danny, stop it."

He ignores her. "Ooh, you two have been fighting." Lacey's cheeks burn. The fight was stupid. Archie was pissed about her spending time with Danny and Jo at the diner, and she lashed out over his stupid soccer reel. "About me? I'm flattered."

"Screw you!" she snaps. She breathes tersely to reel herself back in, but Danny only laughs. She swats again, this time catching him in the side of his chest. His pecks are a lot more firm than she remembers them being. She forces herself to focus. He can't keep reading. She eases up on the gas. "Give me my phone back."

He leans against the window to better look at her. Shakes his head. "Not until you tell me what happened with you and Jo."

"She pissed me off, kind of like you're doing right now."

"Not good enough," Danny says, and then he goes back to her phone. She cannot believe he's doing this. At the same time, though, she can because Danny's a manipulative bastard who only cares about himself. "Wow, Archie's got quite the vocabulary. Very vivid. You should text back when he gets like that."

That is it. Lacey pulls the car over into park and snaps around to face him. Before she can even say anything, he lowers his window and holds her phone out of it. Their eyes lock, and wordlessly he tells her that the only way she's getting her phone is to tell him something. Anything.

Lacey breaks the stare. "Jo couldn't let it go. She made everything about her, and I got sick of it, so I stopped talking to her."

"All of that animosity over excommunication?"

She meets his eye again. "Girls are like that. Now, either give me my phone or get the hell out of my car."

He holds onto it a bit longer and then brings his arm back through the window. He passes it to her. She quickly tucks her phone into her left pocket so he can't get to it again. His eyes burn through her as she hides the phone and reaches for the gear shift.

He says, "That's not all of it, is it?"

"It's all you need to know." She moves the car into drive, but her foot stays on the brake. She takes another breath, then says, "You don't deserve to know anything, Danny, not in my eyes. Push me again, and I'm done. For good."

She waits until there's some sort of recognition on his face before easing off the brake and heading back onto the road. She drives faster than before. _Let's just get this over with._


End file.
